How to Fill Temp Jobs

Finding the right people at the right time who are willing to work for a business, no matter how large or small, is challenging. According to Marcus Lemonis, the star of the cable TV show, “The Profit,” for a company to success, it needs three Ps: Product, process, and people, of which the people aspect proves to be the most difficult aspect of running a business.

Traditionally, hiring had been advertised in newspapers to source local talents. But with the advent of the internet, the world became smaller and the talent pool became larger. Online job aggregator sites became the bargain for employers who needed to advertise their jobs, but cannot afford spending a few hundred dollars attending job fairs.

In addition, with most businesses, there are core team members made up of key employees who make decisions regarding the direction the company is moving in and there are workers who keep the company working and running smoothly. While the majority of hiring managers spend their time finding core team members, positions that are not part of that group are often filled in haste and overlook more qualified candidates. Also, many of those workers are now hired on a contingency basis. Part-time, temporary, seasonal or project based workers are hired with the needs of peaks periods that fluctuate during the day, week and year.

While part time jobs are usually listed with full time positions, project-based and temporary jobs are often not advertised and outsourced to employment agencies. This is a problem I want to solve.

For 16 years I have been running a wholesale fashion accessories business. During certain seasons my company needs more people to come in and help with everything from customer service to packing orders. In addition we need project based help for our e-commerce activities such as photography, graphic design and web maintenance. For many companies like mine, there is a need for diverse talent that is able to work part-time, temporarily, seasonally, or project-based.

For most part-time and full-time positions, ads are sent out, resumes collected, interviews scheduled and ideally the right person is offered a position after decisions are made. However, hiring managers focus less attention on positions that generate less money for the company. Therefore, companies either demand their employees to become a jack of all trades or they look into hiring contingent workers.

There are a few issues with hiring on demand labor. The first being that it is cost prohibitive. Going through with traditional hiring methods would most likely cost the company more money than it could gain from filling that position. The second being that there isn’t any path that is effective at finding workers who have the talents and are interested in working contingently.

After several years of preparation, I created temp411.com to solve this problem. As we are moving farther into an on demand economy, we are creating a path for on demand work to match employees with employers. While last June added more than 287,000 jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, data by the Federal Reserve Economic Data shows that temporary employment has been and is continuing to grow since the 2008 financial crisis.

While “temp” has not been a glamorous word when it comes to talking about employment. there are many who need the flexibility and work experience that it offers. Students who are looking for employment may be willing to work 10 or 15 hours a week, but only around their school schedule. In addition, many stay-at-home parents are willing to work but would only work for jobs that allow them to send off and pick up their children at school. Also many veterans want to get their foot in the door and may be willing to take up a few projects to show off their skills. And lastly, seasoned professionals who are near retirement or are already retired may want to work a few more hours to pass on their knowledge to businesses who wish to seek their advice.

In today’s job market, searching for the right new hire can cost about 20 percent of the salary of the newly hired. For many companies, searching for new hires by registering and attending job fairs in hopes of finding a highly qualified individual interested in applying can be financially out of question. Especially for smaller businesses.

Businesses that can’t afford extensive advertising methods often settle for individuals who are recommended by word of mouth. For those businesses, who you know really is more important that what you know.

By making hiring the right talents easier, we can release the creative energy hidden in our society and grow our economy by making us more efficient and more competitive as a nation.

John Liu is the owner of startup job hunting websites temp411.com, dreamjobs411.com, and several other companies. He founded Elite Spiders, a fashion accessory company, in 2000 and created the brands Straw Studios, Emperia, and MoDA from scratch. He has engineering degrees from Chinese universities and a doctorate in civil engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.